


Fire & Wood

by Berlinghoff, lavvyan



Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: M/M, Photobucket stole my pics, i will upload them to a different site once I know which one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-08
Updated: 2011-10-12
Packaged: 2017-10-24 10:12:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 24
Words: 3,483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/262307
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Berlinghoff/pseuds/Berlinghoff, https://archiveofourown.org/users/lavvyan/pseuds/lavvyan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For the <a href="http://xmen-firstkink.livejournal.com/3278.html?thread=4368590#t4368590">X-Men Firstkink prompt</a>:<br/></p><blockquote>"Somehow, Erik came to live in the branches of Charles' tree, even though he is a bird who should always want to roam the skies and Charles is a tree spirit who should fear Erik's fire.<p>Charles provides him shelter, giving him a home whenever he grows tired of flying and protection when Erik is vulnerable at his rebirth. In return, Erik protects Charles from lumbermen and other things that would do Charles or his tree harm.</p><p>Then there is Shaw, a hunter who is intent on capturing Erik. He would do anything to get his hands on a phoenix, even burn a whole ancient forest to the ground."</p></blockquote><p>This didn't turn out exactly the way Anon asked for, but we hope you'll still like it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> "Many thanks to Cesare and Kate for being brilliant. And also to Berlinghoff79 for indulging me and being... well, brilliant." lavvyan
> 
> "Thanks to lavvyan for asking me to collaborate on another project. I <3 U, sweetie."

  
[   
](http://s817.photobucket.com/albums/zz100/B79_ART/Fire%20and%20Wood/?action=view&current=01.jpg)   



	2. Chapter 2

  
[   
](http://s817.photobucket.com/albums/zz100/B79_ART/Fire%20and%20Wood/?action=view&current=03.jpg)   



	3. Chapter 3

  
[   
](http://s817.photobucket.com/albums/zz100/B79_ART/Fire%20and%20Wood/?action=view&current=04.jpg)   



	4. Chapter 4

  
[   
](http://s817.photobucket.com/albums/zz100/B79_ART/Fire%20and%20Wood/?action=view&current=05.jpg)   



	5. Chapter 5

  
[   
](http://s817.photobucket.com/albums/zz100/B79_ART/Fire%20and%20Wood/?action=view&current=06.jpg)   



	6. Chapter 6

[ ](http://s817.photobucket.com/albums/zz100/B79_ART/Fire%20and%20Wood/?action=view&current=07.jpg)


	7. Chapter 7

  
[   
](http://s817.photobucket.com/albums/zz100/B79_ART/Fire%20and%20Wood/?action=view&current=08.jpg)   



	8. Chapter 8

[ ](http://s817.photobucket.com/albums/zz100/B79_ART/Fire%20and%20Wood/?action=view&current=09.jpg)


	9. Chapter 9

[ ](http://s817.photobucket.com/albums/zz100/B79_ART/Fire%20and%20Wood/?action=view&current=10.jpg)


	10. Chapter 10

[ ](http://s817.photobucket.com/albums/zz100/B79_ART/Fire%20and%20Wood/?action=view&current=11.jpg)


	11. Chapter 11

[ ](http://s817.photobucket.com/albums/zz100/B79_ART/Fire%20and%20Wood/?action=view&current=12.jpg)


	12. Chapter 12

[ ](http://s817.photobucket.com/albums/zz100/B79_ART/Fire%20and%20Wood/?action=view&current=13.jpg)


	13. Chapter 13

[ ](http://s817.photobucket.com/albums/zz100/B79_ART/Fire%20and%20Wood/?action=view&current=14.jpg)


	14. Chapter 14

[ ](http://s817.photobucket.com/albums/zz100/B79_ART/Fire%20and%20Wood/?action=view&current=15.jpg)


	15. Chapter 15

[ ](http://s817.photobucket.com/albums/zz100/B79_ART/Fire%20and%20Wood/?action=view&current=16.jpg)


	16. Chapter 16

[ ](http://s817.photobucket.com/albums/zz100/B79_ART/Fire%20and%20Wood/?action=view&current=17.jpg)


	17. Chapter 17

[ ](http://s817.photobucket.com/albums/zz100/B79_ART/Fire%20and%20Wood/?action=view&current=18.jpg)


	18. Chapter 18

[ ](http://s817.photobucket.com/albums/zz100/B79_ART/Fire%20and%20Wood/?action=view&current=19.jpg)


	19. Chapter 19

[ ](http://s817.photobucket.com/albums/zz100/B79_ART/Fire%20and%20Wood/?action=view&current=20.jpg)


	20. Chapter 20

[ ](http://s817.photobucket.com/albums/zz100/B79_ART/Fire%20and%20Wood/?action=view&current=21.jpg)


	21. Chapter 21

[ ](http://s817.photobucket.com/albums/zz100/B79_ART/Fire%20and%20Wood/?action=view&current=22b.jpg)


	22. Chapter 22

[ ](http://s817.photobucket.com/albums/zz100/B79_ART/Fire%20and%20Wood/?action=view&current=23.jpg)


	23. Chapter 23

[ ](http://s817.photobucket.com/albums/zz100/B79_ART/Fire%20and%20Wood/?action=view&current=24.jpg)


	24. Chapter 24

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lavvyan thought it might be a good idea to add the plain text version for better readability. She's not wrong.*nods*
> 
> Also, thank you to everyone who left kudos, comment or bookmarked our little thingy. ♥

The forest has changed since the last time Erik saw it. Gaps where none were before; wild growth where there used to be gaps; familiar landmarks obscured or vanished altogether. Time means little to one like him, but now he wonders if he hasn't been away too long.

Sometimes he forgets how fast a living thing can wither. The tree may not be his entirely, but its branches are the only home he's ever come to trust. If it has died…

He shivers, loses some of his speed without meaning to before he banks, cranes his neck to look for Raven's lake. How many seasons have passed since that day he crashed into it? Not too many, surely.

Please, not too many.

He opens his beak to let out a call, short and questing, nowhere near the beauty a phoenix can manage, but he's not out to dazzle right now. He listens, with his ears as much as his mind, straining to hear the reply. There's nothing but Mother Wind brushing past him, ruffling his feathers and carrying him higher towards Father Sun. For once, Erik finds no comfort in their silence.

He banks again. Was there a hill last time he was here? That meadow with the yellow flowers; is it the one he remembers? Where is the lake?

Higher, and higher still, tail feathers streaking like a living flame. Mountains; yes. Further to the south. Water through the trees; has the river grown that wide? Can this be the place? He calls again and tells himself that it's the thrill of flight, the open air, that make his heart beat so. He's not let too much time pass by. He's not imagining that faintest stir of welcome in his mind. He's not alone.

 _You're not alone._ A memory, perhaps. No reason for his heart to flutter as if it, too, wants to take flight. _Erik. You are not alone._

More water through the trees. The lake. And there, the ancient deer path. And there, the overgrown rock. And there, the tree.

Much as the forest has changed, the tree stands unaltered. Ageless, branches spread towards the sky, dripping shades of green as the sun drips fire. Smooth bark marred only where Erik clung too hard, scratches and scars forgiven almost before they occurred. There used to be a scorch mark about halfway up, but fresh growth hid away the damage a long time ago. A narrow trench still leads from the lake almost to the foot of the tree, however, and the smooth stone one of the forest's many creatures placed next to it for Raven to perch on is still as free of growth as it ever was.

Erik has to circle once before he lands, too filled with simple, helpless gratitude to control his approach. The branch he's chosen dips beneath his weight, wood creaking in a way that's almost too familiar. The leaves settle around him, hide him like they did so many times as he closes his wings and takes a breath. The Change comes easy to him now, lets him cling with fingers instead of claws. Erik closes his eyes and tilts his head back, smiles with his human mouth.

"Hello, Charles."

And there, in his mind, that voice he missed so much, easy affection enveloping him like the tree's quiet safety.

 _Welcome home, my friend._

~~~

His first visit wasn't quite so tranquil. As long as there has been phoenix, there have been those who would hunt him, turn him into yet another trophy like the white tiger's pelt or the true dragon's head. See him brought down for no other reason but that he is different. And as much as Erik _knows_ his kind to be superior to mortal humans, occasionally they manage to surprise him.

Especially if Shaw is helping them.

And he was then, lending the humans his unnatural fire that stuck to Erik's feathers, burnt through to his skin. Fire unlike anything he had ever known, and though he screamed and turned the humans to cinder with an outburst of his own, their foul concoction still clung and threatened to char his very bones.

How desperately he'd taken to the air. How he'd flung himself into the mercy of Mother Wind, for her to carry him when he could hardly see where he was going. How gracelessly he'd tumbled through the sky, losing height as soon as he'd gained it, finally just falling, falling, for flight was no longer an option.

The lake had boiled around him, his luck and his doom. Luck, for it caught him and drowned the humans' flames. Doom, for it would drown him as well. Better to die at Nature's hand, he knew, but still he'd struggled, even as he body sank further from the surface.

And then…

 _Calm your mind._

A voice, in his _head,_ someone reaching for him, and he hadn't understood then that the shapes around him meant no harm, hadn't believed that voice when it claimed good intentions. Shaw had claimed good intentions, once. Erik had learned fast not to put any faith into anyone's promises.

 _I know you don't trust us, but you're going to drown. Please, Erik. Calm your mind._

How they'd dared touch him, he still doesn't know. How he didn't burn them to ashes, them and the forest around them, he'll never understand. He barely remembers gasping for air, two pairs of hands dragging him to shore. Two sets of hands, one blue as the clear depths of the lake, the other light as young wood just below the bark. Gentler than any touch he'd known before.

Gentler than anything he's known since.

~~~

Charles has changed as little as his tree. His skin is still as pale as fresh wood, his lips as red as autumn leaves, his eyes as blue as Erik's sky. His hair is the same shade of brown as the bark of the branch he rests his arms on as he smiles up at Erik, open and careless.

 _It's very good to see you again._

Erik prods him with his human foot, somewhat proud to keep his balance.

"Language, Charles," he says mildly.

"I apologise." There's laughter in Charles's voice, flowing through Erik like a warm current of air. He's missed this. Against his better judgement, he's missed this. The sky is wide and beautiful, but for phoenix, it's also very empty.

That's how it was meant to be. He's not meant to have a home, or friends, let alone someone like Charles, who couldn't leave his tree even if he wanted to. Who spends his days teaching young spirits how to use their powers without hurting those around them. Who believes in others, even if they try to prove him wrong.

For phoenix, this quiet, earth-bound peace was never an option.

And yet.

~~~

They cared for him, the nymph of the lake and the spirit of a nearby tree. They called each other sibling despite their differences, and didn't seem to mind that Erik in turn was unlike any other creature that dwelt in their forest. They were kind, and friendly, and Erik had barely healed enough to fly before his confusion got the better of him.

"Fare well, my friend," Charles, the tree spirit, had said when Erik had struggled to find a way out from underneath the suffocating blanket of the branches surrounding him. His smile had been sad, but fond. _I'm surprised you've managed to stay this long._

So human in his appearance, and Erik didn't trust that, couldn't trust him, didn't want to try. The sky embraced him as he rose, newly-grown feathers gleaming in the sun and nothing around him but soothing cold and empty blue. He screamed his defiance at the thinning air, revelled at the silence that greeted him.

He was phoenix. He was fire. He was free.

He soared, and slept, and soared once more. Below him, a generation of mortals lived and died. So many things died, but he had never paid much attention. Idly, he wondered how long it would take for a tree to die, but he rarely slept in trees, so the answer was of no real concern to him. Surely, a young tree spirit would make his home in a young tree. Surely, if that tree were to die, the spirit would move on to another.

Surely, it couldn't hurt to check? Those branches had been comfortable, after the water.

He only went back for the tree, of course. He'd never let himself linger on the feeling of gentle fingers ruffling his plumage as his feathers grew back. He'd never imagined the surprised smile that might greet him should he ever return. If he did return, it was only to study the aging of trees.

He most definitely did not go back for Charles.

~~~

He always comes back for Charles.

~~~

Tree spirit and phoenix. They should have nothing to say to each other, fire and wood as ill-suited to forming a lasting friendship as water and stone. One will always harm the other until nothing is left.

But when Charles leans up to kiss him, Erik can't pull away. He never can. Charles has become a part of him the same way the sky is part of him. He is phoenix. He flies. He burns. He lets Charles kiss him. Sometimes, though rarely, he is the one to initiate their kisses. Those are the days Charles's smiles are the brightest.

Charles is smiling now, small and content as he nips at Erik's bottom lip.

 _I could make you stay like this, always,_ he sends. Erik's breath catches, his heart thumping like it wants to choke him, and he doesn't know if it's fear that has him dig his fingers into Charles's shoulders, or anger, or excitement. _I could, but I won't._

 _Why not,_ Erik wants to ask. Isn't he worth the effort? Doesn't Charles want him?

… Doesn't Charles want him?

But Charles is kissing him like Erik's grip doesn't hurt, like Erik never burned him, like Erik's presence is sunshine and water and Charles is the tree. Erik sighs and makes his fingers unclench, runs his hands down the smooth skin of Charles's back. Charles presses closer, one hand now in Erik's hair, and this, this is what happiness must feel like, with the branches around them separating them from the world, hiding them from view.

"Erik," Charles gasps, and Erik lets himself be pulled down until there is nothing but sweat, and touch, and Charles.

~~~

He didn't mean to.

They were discussing humans; how they always feared that which they didn't understand, and always hated what they feared. Charles argued that humanity was better than that. Erik listed all the ways that Charles was wrong. Charles disagreed. Erik lost his temper.

When phoenix loses his temper, things burn.

Charles screamed. His tree blackened, the leaves charred, he screamed, and Erik was helpless to do anything but hold him as Raven doused the flames.

"I'm sorry," he said, the words small and inadequate. "Charles, I'm sorry."

He didn't mean to, but with Charles's tear-streaked face still haunting him as he took to the sky, that thought didn't help very much.

~~~

"I'm beginning to understand why the humans would hunt you."

Charles has a habit of saying the wrong thing even though he means well. Erik no longer resents him for it; there are more things that separate them than their nature.

"How is that?" he asks instead. _Get out of my head,_ he adds, the words worn smooth and warm by time, like the bark of Charles's tree.

Charles perches on the branch opposite him, for once content to meet him eye-to-eye.

"If I had a way to keep you," he begins, but then he cuts himself off. Frustration flickers across his face, followed by something like shame. _I'm sorry, my friend,_ he sends, and there's a rueful undertone to his mental voice. _I just wish I knew a way to make you stay._

Erik nearly laughs at this. "You could make me stay," he says, perhaps not as kindly as he could, "but you won't."

"Not against your will," Charles says. His blue eyes look impossibly sad. "Not unless you want to."

Erik wants to. That is exactly why he has to leave.

"Will you sing for me?" Charles asks.

This much, Erik can give him. He nods, absurdly glad to see the small smile on Charles's face as he changes, feathers rustling as his claws dig into the bark. Charles closes his eyes and tilts his head to the side, still smiling, and Erik sings.

It's a song only phoenix can sing. He sings of wind, and sky, and freedom. He sings of steady rain and the blazing sun and stars as bright as fire. He sings of mountains and streams, of water so vast in encompasses everything, of trees so high they are shrouded in clouds. He sings of changing seasons and quiet clearings and how the smallest things can be the most wondrous of all. He sings of joy, and peace, and returning home after years of flight.

It's a song only phoenix can sing, but only a tree spirit could ever shape that melody.

~~~

The tree stood green and lush again when Erik could stay away no longer, but its bark was still blackened in places and Charles could no longer leave its side.

"It's a compromise," Charles said, patting the trunk with soot-stained fingers. "Neither of us had to die."

But he looked sad and a little lonely, so Erik dug a trench all the way down to the lake. If Charles could not go, at least Raven could come to visit him. It would have taken him all summer with his soft human hands, if not for the beasts and creatures of the forests who helped him.

"You are one of us," Charles said, but Erik knew their aid was for Raven and Charles, not him.

Still, when the trench was finished and Raven sat with them, sharing fondness and laughter, Erik found himself at peace.

 _You're ruining me,_ he thought.

Charles clasped his hand, and smiled.

~~~

He's far away from the forest when Charles dies.

Erik has one enemy who keeps following him through the ages, an imp by the name of Shaw. Erik has evaded him for countless seasons, taking pleasure in destroying the camps of Shaw's human hunters when Shaw himself resides elsewhere. There is history between them; bad history, but it's become almost a game, the hunter and the hunted switching places as they go. Erik forgets that imps may be mischievous and fickle, but above all, they are smart. Shaw spends years searching for Erik's weak spot.

And he finds it.

 _Erik!_

Charles's voice starbursts suddenly in Erik's mind, and he drops nearly a hundred feet before he catches himself, dizzy from pain and fear and regret and _pain_.

"Charles!" They don't communicate this way. Erik's mind never wanders, and Charles never calls for him unless Erik is already well within his reach. Yet here he is, in Erik's head, stubborn and beautiful and in so much pain, his voice hoarse as he clings

 _Erik!_

and begs

 _No no no, please, make it stop, please, stop_

and finally dissolves into a helpless, wordless scream.

And then, silence.

 _Charles?_

Silence.

 _Charles!_

Silence.

~~~

The tree's leaves have turned dry and brittle when Erik swoops down. The trunk is lying half across the trench, leaving only a stump to bleed sap and oils. Shaw and his humans stand at the ready with helmets and protective suits and guns, waiting for him. Beside them, some of the branches have been turned into a wildly smoking campfire.

Erik wants to rage at the sight, to scream, but he cannot. The tree is dead. Fire burns through him like ice, cold and frail and terrible, leaving only devastation in its wake. Charles's tree is dead. His wings flicker in the air like a heat mirage as he lands among familiar branches, daring anyone to shoot at him.

Shaw and his men have killed Charles's tree.

One thousand years. That is the lifespan of phoenix; nothing more, nothing less. He's barely through the half of it, this time around; and yet, where else would he have built his nest? From what material, if not these branches?

When else would he die, if not now?

He spreads his wings and calls for Father Sun to lend him his fire. To cleanse this place, and him, and once more let him start afresh.

He has never burnt as fiercely as this. Shaw and everyone with him are reduced to ash, along with the tree and the little fire, carried away by Mother Wind to be spread across the forest. Nothing is left of phoenix's nest but scorched earth and the newborn bird.

He rises on unsteady wings, and doesn't dare look back.

~~~

He flies, fast and far until exhaustion brings him down. When he rests, his dreams tantalise him with snatches of peace his waking hours do not grant him. The sky is still wide and beautiful, but now it seems emptier than ever, holding not a trace of home, or joy, or companionship.

If Erik could burn the whole world, he would.

It's not supposed to be like this. Phoenix is supposed to be free, unfettered, far above the world and its pedestrian drama. He's not supposed to ache like this.

He's supposed to be alone. He's not supposed to be lonely.

He hates Charles, a little, for all the changes he's brought Erik. For failing to stay and see them through to their conclusion. For being the one to leave, despite all his great words.

 _If I had a way to keep you…_

 _If I had a way to bring you back,_ Erik thinks, _I'd let you keep me._

But he can't.

And Erik will learn to live with that.

~~~

He doesn't.

~~~

"Erik."

It's been a long time since someone spoke his name. Erik is perched on an outcropping of rock, wings folded tight against his body as he stares across ragged slopes of ice broken by black stone. Nothing grows this far up, and he'd thought to be the only living creature unencumbered by the cold.

Raven sits down next to him, her blue scales tipped with white. Her breath, unlike his own, doesn't leave a trace in the air. She is a water nymph, he reminds himself. Ice, too, is part of her element.

He tilts his head in question, not bothering to Change. His human body is not suited to these temperatures.

"Rivers, lakes and seas," she says, and doesn't hide her irritation. "Every time I got where you'd been sighted, you were gone already. I've wasted years looking for you."

For what? To yell at him? She has every right to do that, he muses, and worse. He is, after all, the reason for her brother's death. If she were to command the ice to smother him, he wouldn't fight.

"I was angry for so long," she continues. "You just… how could you leave, Erik? All that devastation, and you just _left._ "

Erik finds that he can't look at her. Even if he had his words, how could he explain the impossibility of staying? He avoids entire swathes of land these days, for fear he might see that particular kind of tree.

"And then I realised." She laughs, an absurd little sound that doesn't fit the way her hands clench into fists beside her. "You don't know. You're a bird. You have no idea just _how deep_ some of those roots can go."

It takes Erik a moment to get her meaning.

And then he's up in the air so fast he can't tell if her shouts are curses or encouragement.

~~~

The forest has changed since the last time Erik saw it, but he pays the differences no heed. He leaves the mountains lying north of him and follows the stream to the lake. And there, the trench. And there, Raven's half-molten rock. And there.

There.

The tree is young and slender, its branches pliant where they reach towards the sky. Fresh green trails down like gentle tears, smooth bark unmarked by time or carelessness. Erik doesn't scratch it, doesn't burn it, Changing even before he touches the ground, tumbling awkwardly out of the sky.

The sun-warmed wood feels warm beneath his palm.

"Charles," he breathes, his heart too overfull to allow for his lungs to work. Hope, he has discovered, is quite terrible for the way it makes his limbs shake and his blood rush.

 _Welcome home, my friend._

Arms encircling him from behind, as unmarked as the tree. A soft kiss pressed into the space between his shoulder blades.

Erik closes his eyes, and allows himself to fall into peace.


End file.
